Shakespeare often uses metaphors and similes to explore how a character is feeling or give an object more depth. He uses figurative language to help the reader understand the message he is trying to convey and for ease of imagination. Although both metaphors and similes are types of figurative language, they are slightly different in format.
A metaphor is the more powerful of the two because it says something is as it implies radical change in the subject; the subject becomes the thing it is compared to. For example in Act 2 Scene 2, in the Capulet’s Orchard, Romeo advances and says of Juliet, “what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun.”
In this quotation Juliet is the subject being compared directly to the sun: Romeo says that she is the sun. The sun plays a significant role in the everyday life of the people, without the sun we wouldn’t be alive. It shines its beauty down on the Earth, lighting up everything it touches and the whole world revolves around it.
Romeo uses this powerful image to describe Juliet and his love for her. His life revolves around his love for Juliet, for Juliet is more beautiful than anything on the earth is and so has her own place, way above the clouds. Juliet is such an important part of Romeo’s life, now he has found her; he can never be without her. Visually, she is superior to any other girl and her glowing, happy nature spreads to the people and things she is near.
A simile uses ‘like’ or ‘as’ in the comparison. For example in the same scene, Romeo, after hearing Juliet speak, uses many images to convey his love.
“O speak again, bright angel, for thou art as glorious to this might,
being o’er my head, as is a winged messenger of heaven unto the
white-upturned wond’ring eyes of mortals that fall to gaze on him, when
he bestrides the lazy puffing clouds, and sails upon the bosom of the air.”
Although enclosed in this long simile is the metaphor, “bright angel,” the main context of this quotation is focused around the simile. He uses ‘as’ to describe Juliet, comparing her to an angel that is high above him, in heaven. She is seen by many, “wond’ring eyes of mortals,” yet these same mortals cast their eye at Romeo too, as he, “bestrides the lazy puffing clouds.”
Juliet’s simile, “my bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep,” is used to compare her love for Romeo to the vastness of the sea and show the reader that you cannot measure it, for the amount is far too great. In other words, her love is endless.
Shakespeare was fascinated by puns, how words or phrases could have tow or more different meanings and be used in a variety of contexts. Some characters in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ adopt this form of language far more than other characters; Mercutio is one of them, who revels in punning of a sexual nature.
In Act 2 Scene 4, Mercutio jokes with Romeo about what he thinks is Romeo’s love for Rosalind. As his joking becomes more and more sexual, Mercutio starts to use puns so that on the surface he his merely talking, but we can see that he his hinting about sexual innuendoes. When he says, “now art thou Romeo…by art as well as by nature,” what he refers to is Romeo’s performance, his, “art,” in the bedroom. He goes on to say,
“ for this drivelling love is like a great natural that runs lolling up
and down to hide his bauble in a hole.”
In this context, the word, “bauble,” is used to mean penis and the word, “hole,” refers to the vagina. Mercutio is really saying that love alone is simply love, but when love is used for sex, nature takes over. Love is merely the word that disguises the true intention of sex, making the action seem more romantic and less like an act of instinct and human nature. He says this confidence of his convictions.
Yet Mercutio isn’t the only character who uses punning to create or conceal atmosphere. In the very first scene of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, two Capulet servants are joking and boasting about their superiority to the Montagues. Sampson and Gregory are too making clever references to sex.
Sampson: “I will be civil with the maids; I will cut off their heads.
Gregory: “The heads of the maids?”
Sampson: “Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads.”
Here Sampson has used the word, “maidenhead,” in two meanings. Firstly it is another way of saying, “the heads of the maidens,” but the words are simply reversed. However, what Sampson is really trying to convey is that he will take away the girl’s virginity. “Maidenheads,” is a polite word for virginity and here the Capulet servant is using it to describe to Gregory how the Capulet men are far better equipped than Montague men.
This passage is also a clear example of repetition in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The phrase, “the heads of the maids,” is said twice in succession. Shakespeare, obviously, is trying to make a statement in the opening scene through the two servants. He is trying to show how confident the Capulet men are, and in fact once you meet the Montagues you realise that they too are confident. Shakespeare wants to highlight this issue right from the opening lines of the play and does so quite effectively. It adds drama to a topic that is considered to be a purely physical act.
Sometimes it is a phrase, as above, or just a single word that is repeated. This device of language is very effective and is not simply repeated in the same scene. Key phrases are spoken by one of the main characters and then echoed later on in the play by another character. The result of this is showing that although each character has their own identity and feelings, many fundamental ideas among the leading roles are the same. It is also a hint to the reader that this scenario has already taken form in another part of the play, and that these two scenes are very closely linked in meaning.
An example of echoing in the play is, “my only love sprung from my only hate,” when Juliet finds out that Romeo is in fact a Montague. Although this exact phrase is not found anywhere else in the play, “here’s much to do with hate, but more with love,” is a reflection in the play, echoed through Juliet’s words to reinforce the ideas of the play. Therefore, yes the play is full of hatred and anger, but underpinning all of that is the strong passion of love. It is love that causes the hate, but also love that stops the hate.
The most common repetition is the word, “civil.” It is used in the prologue, indeed repeated there. “Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” Civil can mean three things; one that these men are not soldiers, but civilians of their country. Two that these men come from respectable households and three that they are men fighting against each other from the same country. In Shakespeare’s play, the quote describes the ongoing feud between the Capulets and Montagues, how two households of such esteem are causing such bloodshed on their own soil and yet continue to do so.
Another example of close repetition is in Act 3 Scene 5. Juliet is personifying the idea of fortune. She repeats the word, “fickle,” to describe how people see fortune, in the hope that Romeo will soon return to her.
Sonnets are used at key, dramatic moments in the play…where a specific emotion is trying to be conveyed. Sonnets are very good at explaining feelings, especially those between characters, which is why most of the sonnets in the play are in fact dialogue between two or more characters. Its principle use is as a poetic form to express love or other deep feelings.
Shakespeare cleverly conceals his sonnets within the main text, so many of them go unnoticed to the reader. The prologue is the first and clearest example of Shakespeare’s use of sonnets/
A sonnet is really a mixture of all the language used throughout the play; neat rhyming, elaborate conceits, e.g. metaphors of war, and the word-play of wit, puns and repetition.
Romeo and Juliet’s first scene together, when they cast their gaze upon one another, is written as a sonnet. It is in Act 1 Scene 5, lines 92-105. Romeo is the first to speak
Romeo: If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shine, the gentle sin is this
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss
Juliet: Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this,
For saints have hands that pilgrim’s hands do touch
And palm to palm is holy palmer’s kiss
Romeo: Have not saint’s lips, and holy palmers too?
Juliet: Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must do what hands do
Romeo: O then, dear saint let lips do what hands do
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair
Juliet: Saints do no move, though grant for prayer’s sake
Romeo: Then move not while my prayer’s effect I take.
If you look at the last two lines (couplet), you can see that both lines contain 10 syllables each the last word on each of the lines rhymes, “sake…take.” Romeo and Juliet even get about an equal share of the sonnet.
Romeo uses religious imagery to conjure up Juliet as being holy. By using phrases such as, “blushing pilgrims,” it is a literal way of bringing to life something figurative. Pilgrims did make long journeys to the shrines of the Holy Land to show their commitment to their faith. Romeo is comparing this to Juliet saying that he is one of these pilgrims paying his respects to something so holy, Juliet. Also by using religious imagery, Romeo is expressing his deep respect for Juliet and already making her seem godly and above human.
Shakespeare’s skill in creating atmosphere or defining a particular feeling through his choice of language is so great that many of these chosen expressions survive to this day as ways of helping us express ourselves. We just don’t notice that because these phrases have become so familiar, we don’t think anything of it.
In Act 2 Scene 2 Juliet says, “What’s in a name?” referring to the obstacle of the two households in opposition to one another. This phrase is one of many throughout the play that is commonly used today. Also in Act 2, but this time in Scene 5 is the phrase, “as gentle as a lamb,” spoken by the Nurse to compare Romeo to a creature of mild nature. She does this to describe to Juliet her feelings of the young man, and this phrase is a way of saying that she approves of him. Also phrases such as, “on a wild goose chase,” and,” where the devil?,” are found in the play, all of which are still widely in use today. This shows just how much impact Shakespeare has had on the English language, to still be able to find phrases that are 400 years old in existence today.
Not only this, but the wide, complex spectrum of emotions created by the words Shakespeare uses adds depth and underlying meaning to his characters and their situations. Love, hate, every single emotion, are illustrated through the many types of language found in the play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, such as metaphors, similes and puns. He even invents his own words; giving existing words new meanings and unexpected twists.
I think Gibson is right when he says that Shakespeare, “brilliantly transformed whatever he worked on.” ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is no exception.